Tuesday, July 26, 2011

A Little Bit of Nazi History

How did the Nazi Party originate?

It all began at the end of WWI. Germany was placed with the burden of responsibility for World War I directly by France and Britain and indirectly by the United States. Essentially, the US demanded immediate reparation payments from France and Britain. In turn, France and Britain demanded the same of Germany to then pay to America.

Unlike France, who created an income tax to fund the war, Germany decide to finance the war completely by borrowing loans. The “London Ultimatum” of May 1921 demanded that Germany pay back via gold or foreign currencies 2,000,000,000 (two-billion) per year in addition to 26% of the profit of Germany’s annual exports. By 1921, 60 German marks could purchase 1 US dollar. This ratio stayed stable for a while. By 1922, however, it was now up to 320:1, already dangerously inflated. Many international reparation conferences took place to speculate on how Germany could pay back its owed money, but no solution was reached. In turn, the ratio of German marks to dollars was at 8000:1 by December of 1922. The cost of living in Germany saw a 16-fold increase from June to December of 1922.

It was said that by the time you were done drinking a cup of coffee, the price of it would have doubled.

At this point, France and Britain (who still wanted their money from Germany) asserted that Germany had purposefully destroyed its own economy with the intent to avoid reparation payments. France wanted Germany to keep printing until it had paid back its debts. Britain was more lenient and was willing to grant Germany time to allow its economic system to recuperate and then pay back what they owed.

Interesting fact: "Zero Stroke was a term used to describe a mental disorder reportedly diagnosed by physicians in Germany under the Weimar Republic and which was caused by hyperinflation that occurred in the early 1920s. The disorder was primarily characterized by patients' desire to write endless rows of zeros, which are also referred to as ciphers. Cashiers, bookkeepers, and bankers were reportedly the most prone to this affliction. Besides a compulsion to write endless strings of zeros, individuals that suffered from this condition would reportedly become confused when referring to numbers and would state that they were ten billion years old or had forty trillion children."

After Germany's problems with hyperinflation, a charismatic and idealogical leader came along promising to fix Germany's problems and to restore it to greatness. His name? Adolf Hitler.

How did the Nazi Party come to power?

The Reichstag Fire was an arson attack on the German Parliament. This event played a key role in the establishment of the Nazi’s power in Germany. The fire was used as evidence by Hitler and the Nazis that communists were plotting to overthrow the German government. Adolf Hitler, sworn in as Chancellor four weeks earlier, asked German President Paul von Hinderburg to declare an emergency declaration against the Communist Party of Germany. Once Germans’ civil liberties had been suspended, the government arrested thousands of communists, including all of the German Communist parliamentary delegates. With their seats empty, the Nazis took over as the majority.

Hitler’s goal after being elected was to gain a majority for the Nazis and abolish democracy legally so that he could remain the Chancellor (the President had the power to remove him). He was successful in this endeavor when he passed the Enabling Act. This act allowed the Chancellor to pass laws without the involvement of the Reichstag, or Parliament. These powers were to remain for four years, then they could be renewed. Under the German Weimar Constitution, this was legal. It allowed Hitler the power to rule the country arbitrarily in times of emergency. This Enabling Act happened only once before, in 1923-1924 when Germany was in a state of emergency from hyperinflation, as previously mentioned. Once the Nazis gained a 2/3 majority in the Parliament (mainly by scaring or banishing communist delegates), the act was passed and Hitler became the dictator of Germany. Although it is still a subject of debate among scholars even today, the Nazi party is suspected of being behind the fire to gain political power.

What, exactly, did the Nazi Party stand for?

The Nazi Party (National Socialist Workers' Party) was a German political ideology that incorporated fascism, racism, and anti-Semitism. In practice, Nazism was on the far-right end of the political spectrum. Nazis believed that the Aryans were the master race and claimed that German was home to the purest breed of Aryans. The German government claimed that it needed to create New Order that involved an empire that would give Germany Europe as its land mass.

Nazis asserted that Jews were the largest threat to the Aryan race and to Germany. They associated Jews with both communism and capitalism, and for this reason the German economy of this time was neither. They supported and upheld a nationalistic socialism that was to best serve the Aryan race and the German nation and its economy. The government provided social welfare programs for workers, fair wages, and protection from capitalistic exploitations.

23 comments:

Never knew about the whole economy side of the nazi's, the section on the "zero stroke" phenom is a great addition to the blog and a change from other writings on this time period. An interesting read, love it when i learn something new! 000000000000

It's always nice to hear the other side of the story, failings like Nazi Germany and Communist Russia are the main reasons we have unfair capitalism that we do. Socialism and communism aren't such bad ideals, they've just been abused too much, and everone is afraid of what might happen. Damnit now I'm going to be arrested for being a communist.

Beautiful explanation. I read everything. But the Nazis did not really run a an anti-Jew platform, but a pro-Germany one, really. And fwiw, nobody liked Jews at that time. Hilter wanted to send them all to America, but America said no.